NEW DELHI: Chinese soldiers have killed three Indian soldiers, including the Commanding Officer of a battalion at Galwan valley in a violent faceoff on Monday night, heightening tensions on the border to such levels since 1975, when four
Assam Rifles troopers had been ambushed.
The killings – an official statement said that it took place during the `de-escalation process underway in the Galwan valley – come at a time when thousands of soldiers are facing each other at several locations on the Line of Actual Control and have been in combat mode since early May.
“During the de-escalation process underway in the Galwan Valley, a violent face-off took place yesterday night with casualties. The loss of lives on the Indian side includes an officer and two soldiers. Senior military officials of the two sides are currently meeting at the venue to defuse the situation,” an
Indian Army statement read.
Sources said that the Commanding Officer, a Junior Commissioned Officer and a soldier were killed in a violent skirmish perpetrated by the Chinese side that have refused to leave the Galwan valley and are sitting inside Indian territory.
More details of the skirmish are awaited and it is not immediately known if casualties have been suffered by the Chinese side too. A series of faceoffs have taken place in the Galwan valley for over five weeks now with troops coming face to face on several occasions. However, this is the first instance of violence since May 6 when troops last clashed.
The faceoff at the Galwan valley was first reported by Economic Times on May 13. As reported the Chinese
PLA had set up tents close to the
Galwan River, an old 1962 flashpoint.
The Galwan river area has a painful history with
China, with People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers surrounding a freshly set up Indian Army post in July 1962, in what would be one of the early triggers to the Sino-Indian war.